Typical elastic nets for cold meat products of a closed periphery, known from the prior art, comprise many parallel longitudinally inextensible warps, weaved with one continuous elastic weft running peripherally and helically along the length of a net axis which weaves with warps in successive nodal points arranged along the length of a net. Exemplary nets of this type are disclosed in patent applications GB 1 207 030, EP 0 802 996 and EP 0 058 735.
Characteristic feature of these kinds of nets is that a crosswise cut of such a net perpendicularly relative to a net axis results also in cutting a helically running weft what in turn causes that a net either unplaits or considerably loosens and deforms, and in consequence slides off from a food product.
Such a problem does not occur in nets produced directly on a product using tying machines, which tie separated and parallel to each other elastic peripheral wefts on a series of parallel warps. Nonetheless an important drawback of a net produced using such machines is a long time of a production process which results from a necessity of nodal weaving of wefts with warps in all points of their mutual intersections.
For elimination of the above-mentioned drawbacks nets produced directly in a form of a tubular sleeve in one weaving process have been proposed in the prior art comprising many circumferential weft loops parallel to each other and perpendicular to the net longitudinal axis, wherein threads forming the wefts are sectionally interknitted with warps on sections between the loops. Exemplary nets of this kind are disclosed in Russian patent applications RU 2383137 and RU 2346441. Though such nets do not get unplaited if they are cut crosswise, they are still circumferentially inextensible and extensible only in a longitudinal direction. Furthermore, individual sections of each weft loop are formed from individual threads.
Another solution overcoming the above-mentioned drawbacks of typical nets having continuous helical wefts has been proposed in a British patent application GB 993,531 which discloses an elastic tubular net for cold meat products formed from a woven sheet of a net comprising parallel to each other, inextensible warps weaved with elastic wefts parallel to each other and perpendicular to the warps. Tubular form of a net is formed by a connection of the sheet edges parallel relative to the warps by means of a longitudinal stitch that connects the extending warps of the sheet. The longitudinal stitch of the net does not unplait after crosswise cutting thereof so a net formed by sewing together this sheet has a form of a cylinder with elastic circumferential wefts parallel to each other and inextensible longitudinal warps and a longitudinal stitch, wherein crosswise cutting the warps and/or the stitch does not result in unplaiting a net, thereby featuring good functionality in particular with regard to cold meat products. However producing such a net is relatively complicated and thus time-consuming and expensive. In a general case production of such a net requires a separate process of producing net sheets and a separate process of connecting each sheet with a longitudinal stitch to form a finished tubular net.
It has been an object of the present invention to provide an elastic net of a closed periphery which would be circumferentially extensible and substantially longitudinally inextensible and which would not get unplaited after crosswise cutting thereof and from the other hand would be produced in a simple manner, preferably in a single automated weaving process. In particular such a finished net should be suitable for covering longitudinal food products, and especially cold meat products.